‘Ex-Gay’ Activists Work to Undermine Virginia’s University System

Voice of the Voiceless founder Christopher Doyle thought he conducted an “undercover” investigation in September when he infiltrated LGBT resource centers at Virginia’s public universities. His goal was to see if they were disseminating information on “ex-gay” programs. However, this foolish effort was akin to going “undercover” in a supermarket to find out if food was on the shelves.

It is preposterous to expect any responsible university to distribute literature that aggressively demonizes and depicts LGBT students as mentally ill. The American Psychiatric Associations says that attempts to change sexual orientation can lead to, “anxiety, depression and self-destructive behavior.” How would an institution of higher learning justify placing at-risk students in harms way?

Doyle and his cohorts at Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays (PFOX) claim that not promoting ex-gay programs represents a viewpoint bias. I will happily concede this point, and add that universities should actually do more to thwart junk science from corrupting the educational system.

Washington Post reporter Tom Jackman addressed this issue by asking: “When is it appropriate for a public university to offer information about a thoroughly discredited belief?”

The answer is never – unless it is in a debate class that teaches students how to debunk false theories and unreasonable rhetoric. The appropriate response for university officials, in the case of Doyle, is to admit they are strongly biased against unadulterated BS. This is precisely what separates education from indoctrination, history from histrionics, information from disinformation, and actual science from science fiction. If an institution is not allowed to show bias in favor of fact over fantasy, they might as well begin showing King Kong and Godzilla movies in zoology classes.

It is important to understand the breathtaking insincerity of these charlatans. They are claiming to be victims of discrimination, yet have long opposed equal rights for LGBT people. Doyle, for example, works for the International Healing Foundation, a group that advocated for harsh penalties against homosexuality in countries such as Uganda and Russia.

The latest undercover operation (aka publicity stunt) is part of a cynical strategy that was recently revealed on Voice of the Voiceless’ website:

“If we are to change the way our society is going, we need to adapt to our current social environment and use the legalization of tolerance and non-discrimination to our advantage,” wrote VoV’s Nathan Ruark.

These activists want to exploit liberalism’s desire for open-minded discussion, to justify their closed-minded derision. They believe that if a counselor tells a conflicted student that “gay is good,” the school must then sanction extremists tell that same student that “gay is gross.” In their delusional minds, such divisiveness represents true diversity. I hope Virginia’s university leaders aren’t gullible enough to fall for Doyle’s artificial outrage and will not be bullied by his “skewpoint” disguised as a legitimate viewpoint.

Moreover, Doyle is incredibly dishonest. He told the Washington Post, “You take the client’s goals, and you work with their goals and you don’t impose your own values. It’s supposed to be value neutral.”
Yet, Doyle’s boss at the International Healing Foundation, Richard Cohen, shows that the group’s view on counseling at universities is far from neutral. According to Cohen’s book, Coming Out Straight:

“…universities throughout the world are teaching our children on the platform of human rights and social equality, that homosexual people are born this way and cannot change. The promotion of these myths is another factor that may influence someone to become homosexual, or pull him over the line. This is cultural indoctrination for impressionable youths who are still confused with their sexual identities.”

Interestingly, at the conservative Values Voter Summit this past weekend, a PFOX spokesperson, Rev. Grace Harley (pictured), attended an anti-gay seminar. The moderator, Houston pastor Rick Scarborough said, “You are not gay. You are recruited.” Harley, while sitting near the front row, certainly didn’t object to this calumny. I guess this is what Doyle means by “value neutral.”

It is clear that Doyle and PFOX don’t like LGBT-affirming resources. Their answer is for universities to provide information from the National Association for Research and Therapy for Homosexuality (NARTH). Here is the advice NARTH board member Gerard van den Aardweg suggests that counselors impart to students:

“…a preferable reaction to young people who disclose their secret feelings something like this: ‘You may indeed feel that interest in your own sex, but it is still a question of immaturity. By nature, you are not that way. Your heterosexual nature has not yet awakened. What we have to discuss is a personality problem, your inferiority complex.”

Should leading universities really be in the business of telling students that they are “inferior?” If anti-gay activists get their way, this is precisely what will happen in Virginia.

About the Author

Wayne Besen is the Founding Executive Director of Truth Wins Out and author of “Anything But Straight: Unmasking the Scandals and Lies Behind the Ex-Gay Myth” (Haworth, 2003). In 2010, Besen was awarded the “Visionary Award” at the Out Music Awards for organizing the American Prayer Hour, an event which shined a spotlight on the role American evangelicals played in the introduction of Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill.

8 Comments

bill johnsonOctober 14, 2013 at 8:08 pm -

Speaking of NARTH they invited Doyle to come talk about his efforts against Virginia universities at their upcoming conference in November so I expect we will know more about what they are plotting then.

I doubt that any of the universities will cave to Doyle’s “policy recommendations” so it will be interesting to see what Doyle does next. If he tries to take any legal action against the universities it could easily backfire and end up giving our side a great opportunity to expose just how absurd Sexual orientation change efforts really are.

As for what Doyle wants, the idea that universities should pretend that SOCE is a valid and worthy form of practice is absurd and the universities have lots of support for refusing to promote such rubbish. Specifically they can point to the relevant professional organizations, the evidence presented in two states that led to the practice being banned for minors, and the 9th circuit court which upheld the ban in California. It’s also important that they actually did have a copy of the ex-gay literature so its not like they refused to acknowledge ex-gay efforts when asked about them, it’s just that they were going to provide the truth about SOCE and not the spin that Doyle wants.

Chris “Snake Oil” Doyle is a fraud. He has claimed a group of people exist and can change, yet has brought forth no compelling evidence.

What he promotes is simply a marketing message that claims LGBT people are mentally ill and that they can be fixed if they pay him a fee.

Smells like a con artist, if you ask me.

bill johnsonOctober 14, 2013 at 9:16 pm -

A con-artist who is supported by anti-gay groups like liberty counsel because his con supports their anti-gay ideology and thus is useful. Collectively ex-gay activist’s actions after the closure of Exodus have been so transparent. NARTH recently re-designed their web page and of course Doyle is running one big ongoing sale pitch both attempts at putting nicer packaging on the same dysfunctional product. His PR campaign is faced with an imposable task and yet he won’t stop fighting the truth.

According to Chollar, Doyle told him that he was straight and had just recently become aware of his feelings for other men and wanted help as to the direction he should take while at the same time remaining an Evangelical Christian. […]

“He would have had a different reception with me if from the very beginning he said he didn’t want to [be gay],” Chollar said. “He presented as neutral and unknowing and that he was experiencing these feelings and he didn’t know what to do about them.”

So, Doyle’s presenting issue was that he knew the condemnation of Evangelical Christianity, and nothing about gay men who are also Christian, an information gap the therapist offered to help him bridge.

I had a competent, experienced therapist after I came out in ’93, and I was saying I think I might be gay, but I’m not sure, and it’s messing with my head and my marriage. The therapist promised he had no magic wand that could ID me as straight, bi or gay, this would be my journey to make. He also couldn’t make predictions about my marriage, but he could talk about men who ID’d as gay and still hetero-married, those who were mostly straight or quite bisexual.

Not a Christian himself, the therapist still knew the relevant biblical texts intimately and could speak to the different ways his clients had integrated them.

He was absolutely clear, though, that my attractions to guys weren’t going to evaporate, given that they’d been a long-standing thing for me.

That’s the kind of competence that infuriates Doyle now. He’d rather have hacks who do therapy by pamphlet, teaching pillow-whacking and parent-shaming at dire cost to their clients.

Richard RushOctober 15, 2013 at 8:56 am -

From the article you linked to: “Doyle, himself a psycho-therapist, said that LGBTQ resource centers at public Virginia universities should be value-neutral and present both sides of an issue.”

Yes, universities should always teach both sides of an issue. There are thousands and thousands of us who have come out of the spherical lifestyle, and are now flat-earthers, but our voices have been silenced.

Regan DuCasseOctober 15, 2013 at 12:46 am -

During the arguments in the Supreme Court on Brown vs. the Brd. of Education, those who supported segregation used some non credible science and non related statistics to ‘prove’ that blacks were sexually aggressive and less moral than whites.
Doyle is the equivalent of a light skinned black, passing for white, and engaging in anti black political action while trying to crash a black studies class and insisting that what all the racists said was true.
And demanding equal time for his own agenda, and when no one pays attention, complains it’s discrimination.
He’s trying to cash in on a legacy of bigotry and discrimination that’s killed gay people, literally before many were old enough to vote.
Doyle is so weak. He’s as low as anyone can get.

GianniOctober 15, 2013 at 1:29 pm -

This thing about “non-bias viewpoint information” is a load of nonsense. Why would any government wish to fund useless information with a proven track record of doing harm to the recipients. They are forbidden by law to do that. CD’s point can be taken right over the cliff: how about making available gay change info using witchcraft, acupuncture, seeing a witch doctor, herbal medicine, prayer (their favorite), etc. Why stop at one useless source of information? How about regression therapy? Take one back to the womb and change him? Come on Chris, you are a charlatan and if you didn’t get money from this farce, you’d have to have a real job.

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